MATTHEW 18-20 STRIVE TO BECOME GREAT2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Matthew 18-20 Strive To Become Great

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2020.

The disciples had a long-running debate, seemed to begin really pretty early in their time with Jesus and continued on even to the very end. And when Jesus was going to be crucified, they would continue to come back to the same argument, this same debate, the same discussion about who was the greatest. And they would continue to come back to the same argument, this same debate, the same discussion about who was the greatest.

And we see that mentioned here in Matthew chapter 18. We'll also see it again in Matthew chapter 20 this morning. It was something that was on their minds a lot and something that they fought fervently about regularly. As I was reading through these passages this week, it was reminding me of a few months back.

And I was hanging out here on a Sunday morning, getting ready for service. And Richard and Josh were in the back getting ready and we were talking. And I asked them a question because I'd been seeing all of these things on social media. And I didn't really know what it was about. And I was like, why are they insulting these players, these athletes? What is it that they're so upset about with these athletes that they keep calling goats?

And they say, no, that guy's the GOAT. No, that guy's the GOAT. And I was really convinced it was an insult. And maybe you might not know better yourself. And so you're not laughing and that's okay. But apparently GOAT stands for greatest of all time. And so there's these debates between people of who's the greatest. Is it, you know, LeBron James? Or was it Kobe Bryant? Was it Michael Jordan? Was it Jerry Simmons? You know, the debate rages on. Questions are asked.

But I thought it was an insult. I was convinced. I was like, surely these guys did something terrible and that's why everybody's calling them a goat. Doesn't it sound like an insult?

Well, the disciples had a similar debate going on. Who's the greatest of us? Who's going to have the greatest position and the greatest role in the kingdom of God? And so we want to consider this idea of greatness and striving to become great this morning. The title of the message is Strive to Become Great because I want to encourage you to do so. I want to encourage you to strive, to push forward, to work hard to become great.

Great, but also understand along with that is that greatness doesn't have to be a competition against others.

In order for you to be great, it doesn't mean that others have to be lessened. It doesn't have to diminish the work of others or the accomplishments of others or where they're at with the Lord. In order for you to succeed, others don't have to fail. We're not looking for that kind of greatness. But we are looking for greatness. That is that God intends for you to become the greatest that you can be.

that God intends for you to reach your full potential. And there needs to be an endeavor on our part, really a striving for, a reaching for our full potential in the Lord and all that God has for us. I often would look at these things, you know, this idea of desiring to be great. And, you know, I don't really have the same kind of

ideas or the same kind of drives that other people have in my workplace. I work with people who are a lot younger with me and boy, they have great ambitions to be great. They want to change the world. They want to radically, you know, just accomplish incredible things like, you know, only the greats of business worlds has ever accomplished and they're striving for those things. And

And I listen to the conversations and I listen to the plans and the tactics and the techniques and I just don't have that same kind of drive. I don't have those same kind of desires. I'm not trying to change the world. I don't know if you are, but

I wonder then, well, do I need to strive to be great? You know, as you look at the interaction of Jesus as he talks about greatness, is that something that's important for us? Should we desire to be great? Should we strive for greatness? Well, certainly not in comparison to others. You know, if I'm trying to be greater than you, you know, well, that'll be pretty easy. But no, I'm just kidding. Yeah.

Paul says if we compare ourselves with each other's, with ourselves, or compare ourselves with ourselves, you know, we're foolish to do that. But the idea of striving to accomplish all that God has for me does strike true. And maybe you would rephrase it a little bit.

Maybe striving to become great, you know, doesn't quite sit right with you. That's okay. Maybe striving for faithfulness is a better way to put it. Maybe that's a way that you can understand that what God is calling you to do is to do your best with all that he has given to you. Jesus reached his full potential for you. He was faithful. He believed.

became great and he worked hard to become great. Of course, he's Jesus. He was already great, but he was faithful to the fullest potential of all his life and ministry, the way that the father had set before him. And so it's appropriate for us.

In receiving what he has done for us, which we'll celebrate in communion in a little bit. Receiving that, that we then reciprocate and we say, yes, I will give myself completely just like he gave himself completely for me. The Apostle Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.

Paul says, don't you know, when athletes compete, when they run in a race, they all compete, they all run, but one receives the prize. There's one who is the greatest. Paul says, run in such a way that you may obtain it. Again, illustrating it's like competition in that way, that there is this effort, that there is this striving to become great, but it's not like a competition in that the objective is for me to be greater than you.

The objective is for me to push to be great so that I reach, well, the fullest potential, that I run to win the prize so that I accomplish the race that God has set before me. And so as the disciples wrestle with this idea of greatness, and Jesus is going to instruct them and correct their thinking, we go along the journey with them to help us, to encourage us

to strive for greatness, but in the proper way. And so we're going to start out here in Matthew chapter 18, verses one through four for point number one this morning. And that is, in our striving to become great, we must become great at humbling ourselves. You see that striving for greatness isn't really a problem, but it's what it is that we're trying to accomplish or what kind of greatness that we're trying to accomplish that is important.

In verse 1, it says, Jesus, who's the greatest of all time? Who's the GOAT of all the disciples? Greatest in the kingdom of heaven. It doesn't like spell out the same way as GOAT. It's not as like catchy, right? Gitko? Who's the Gitko, Jesus, of all the disciples?

Who's the best of us? Who is going to have the seats of honor? Who's going to be recognized in eternity for their greatness above all the others? And so the disciples here are having this debate once again. It's interesting to go along the journey with the disciples, isn't it? Kind of picturing ourselves in their shoes and thinking about what they might have been thinking about. And it's easy to imagine the disciples bringing this question to Jesus, kind of thinking that

Well, I can ask. I can be bold and ask this question to Jesus because I'm 90% sure he's going to tell everybody it's me, right? It's like, it's a bold question. Who's the greatest of us to ask Jesus that? But I'm pretty sure he's going to tell everybody what I already know. I'm the greatest. Maybe that's what Peter was thinking or James or John or Bartholomew or Thomas or maybe that's what they were thinking when they were asking Jesus these things, but they can't resolve it themselves.

They each have their own opinions. They're making their case for themselves or for each other, but they can't come to a conclusion which one of them is the greatest. So they bring it to Jesus. And how is Jesus going to resolve this? Well, Jesus gives them an illustration. In verse 2, it says, Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Here, Jesus gives them this illustration. It's a picture for them to draw some lessons from, to see in front of them some important truths that they need to grasp hold of and they're not quite getting.

Here they are debating, they're fighting. Who's the greatest? Jesus, tell them, tell everybody I'm the greatest. And Jesus responds by bringing in a little child in their midst. Now the word little child is not a super precise term. It could be an infant, it could be a toddler, it could be elementary age child. It's, you know, somewhere just as a young child, a little child. And so here is this little child who is around and Jesus responds.

Instead of directly answering the question, brings this little child in and says, take a look, guys. You're maneuvering, you're positioning, you're striving and debating about who is the greatest. Look at this child. Unless you are converted and become as little children, you by no means will enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus says, look, you're wrestling and fighting over who's going to be the greatest. Listen, unless you become like this child,

You're not even going to enter unless you are converted and become like little children. You're not even going to enter the kingdom, much less be the greatest. He says, let's back up a little bit here. You're coming in with some grand assumptions that you're probably the greatest. But there is this need of conversion. There is a need for you to become like a little child, for you to even enter in to the kingdom of heaven. And then he goes on to say in verse 4, therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in

And so what does this illustration teach us? What does this illustration teach the disciples? What does it mean to become as this little child? There's a lot of ideas that we could consider.

A lot of different aspects of childhood that we could reflect on and think about. There's the idea of dependence. As a child depends upon their parents, then we as children of God need to learn to depend upon God. There's the concept of trust. Trusting in and looking to for wisdom and advice and counsel. And the way that children do that, then we as children of God, we need to approach God in the same way.

Some talk about children being unable to deceive. And so we like children need to be unable to deceive, to be genuine. I don't know, unable to deceive. That seems like hit and miss for me with kids. I mean, it seems like some of them are pretty good at that, but non-threatening. Another one is, you know, kids are not intimidating. You know, a little child, it's, you're not going to be fearful of meeting a little child in a dark alley at night, right? Well, it depends on what movie you've been watching, you know, the night before, but there's all these different aspects of

Jesus doesn't really go into great detail about this illustration. He just gives the illustration, and I think that's a little bit intentional in that it gives us a little bit of opportunity to then hear from the Lord the things that we in particular need to hear about childhood and our approach to God and our relationship to God. Parents will tell you that every child is different. Even, you know, my sister had twins a few years back now. They're twins. They're twins.

And yet, they're different. Their personalities are different. What they like, what they think, you know, the way they act, their personalities, and their approach to things, it's different. I think about me and my sister growing up, and I don't know if you could get two more different people than us two, right? The way that we would handle things and address situations and think through things. And then you talk to parents who have more than two, and you find out it's not just the two that are different. The third one is different still.

And then the fourth one is even different from the rest. And then Roman, right? The fifth one is different than all the four previous, right? Children are different. And I think the Lord intends for us to be able to think about it in a way that would allow him to minister to us about, well, some aspects of childhood that we need to incorporate and that we need to have and that he wants to work into our lives. But he centers it around one chief characteristic.

In verse 4, he says, Humbling of yourself is what Jesus says needs to happen in order for you to be like this child. And so this is the characteristic that he's emphasizing. And there's perhaps all these other different aspects that also he would want to speak to us about. But in order to strive to become great in the kingdom of God,

Jesus says what you need to work on is this issue of humility. As demonstrated in the lives of children, but it's the characteristic of humility that is needed. And so it's worth considering. Are you great at humbling yourself? Is that something you're really good at? Have you reached your full potential of humility? Well, of course, in order for us to really evaluate that, we have to understand what is humility?

What is humility really? What does it mean to humble yourself? Hopefully you know that humility is not low self-esteem. It's not a low perception of yourself or like talking badly about yourself or a neglecting of yourself in a way that's harmful and hurtful to you. Humility is sometimes attributed to those things, but it is not those things. Instead, I like the definition, this definition of humility. It

Humility is an accurate view of yourself. Humility is an accurate view of yourself. Accurate, in order for your view of yourself to be accurate, you have to basically have God's view of yourself. You need to see what God sees. You need to have God's perspective about yourself.

And the accurate view of myself, the accurate view of you as a believer in Jesus Christ is that you, guess what, are a child of God. And so then this illustration can really take effect because you are God's child. And here's the disciples, their focus is not on the reality of who they are. They're not focused on an accurate perspective of who they are. They're fighting over which one of them is the greatest. They've lost all perspective.

and thinking of themselves to a greater degree than they actually are. We can also lose all perspective and think of ourselves in a lower degree than we actually are. What we need is an accurate view. We need God's perspective. Every other view of ourselves is distorted. Your family's view of you is distorted.

There are some aspects of their view and their perspective that can be really helpful and beneficial for advice and counsel. And they see things in you and behavior in you that you probably don't see in yourself. And so in a lot of ways, there's value in their perspective. But at the same time, their perspective is distorted. It's tainted by sin. They also don't see the heart and the motivations. And so their scope is limited. Your family's view is distorted.

Your friends around you, their view of you is distorted as well. And along with the, you know, issues of sin and the things that they can't see, sometimes even amongst friends, there's issues of jealousy and competition. And so that perspective changes. Your view, the one that you see in the mirror, your view of yourself, it's distorted. It's not accurate. As Jeremiah said, our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

We don't often know our own hearts. We have a distorted view of ourselves. As we worked through Ephesians a few months back on Wednesday nights, we focused on the idea of the identity that we have in Christ. And it's so important to have and to know my identity in Christ because who God says I am and who I am in Christ is different perhaps than what I see or feel. It's different perhaps than what people around me say or think or their perspective.

Every other view is distorted. It's God who has an accurate view of you. And so how do we get this accurate view? How do we experience humility that comes from a real understanding of who we are and where we're at? I would suggest it comes down to an issue of obedience and submission. Because it's God who has the accurate view of us. It's submission to God which brings us into our rightful place of humility and

Having his understanding and his perspective as we submit to his will and his plan and believe what he says. Think about it this way. It's found in Philippians chapter 2, talking about the greatest humbling of himself that has ever been accomplished when Jesus, who being God is the creator, humbled himself and became a man. And Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 2 verse 8, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and

and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Jesus, although he is God, although he is the creator, he humbled himself. He left his position of glory, became man, not setting aside his deity, but adding humanity to his deity. And now as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death. He models for us.

what great humility looks like. How to become great at humbling yourself is obedience. Obedience to God to the point of death. Obedience to God with your very life. It's obedience. Submission. Not my will, but your will is what Jesus prayed in the garden. He sets the model for us. We need to strive to become great. And Jesus reached his full potential.

And he gave it his all. And it was incredibly difficult. And he worked hard and paid a great price to become great. Although he is great because he's God, right? But at the same time, he humbled himself and filled out the Father's plan completely. Walked in it in every detail, in every step. And he sets the model for us to follow suit. Become great at humbling yourself.

Again, that's not low self-esteem. That's not talking badly about yourself. That's not thinking you can't do anything so you never try anything. No, that's you finding out what God says about you, finding out what God has in store for you, finding out what steps God wants you to take, and then submitting yourself, being obedient. And so you might think of it again as faithfulness rather than greatness. It's faithfulness to do all that God has called you to do.

Well, we're going to move on to Matthew chapter 19 for the second point this morning. Here's point number two. As we strive to become great, first, we need to become great at humbling ourselves. Secondly, we need to become great at treasuring heaven. We need to humble ourselves. We need to put ourselves back in perspective. But we also need to put in perspective the things that we value, the things that we treasure.

And here in Matthew chapter 19, we have the account of, well, we refer to him as the rich young ruler. And we're not going to read through the whole account, but to kind of just introduce him a little bit. He was very religious, incredibly diligent. He had it all going on, right? He was rich. He was young. He was a ruler. So he had authority. And yet he realized, he was aware of, I don't feel complete, right?

I'm lacking something. There's something missing, and I don't have the assurance of eternity. And so he comes to Jesus saying, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life? How can I know that I'll be in eternity with the Father? And Jesus interacts with him a bit, but we're going to jump into verse 21 as Jesus responds to him. It says, Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, you

This is a good guy. Very religious, very diligent to follow the law. He broke the law, of course, like everybody does. But then he would follow the law in making amends and sacrificing and offering for his offenses. And so Jesus says...

Here's what you need to do. If you want to be perfect, you want to be complete, whole, go sell everything that you have and give it to the poor. Now, this was not Jesus giving an exhortation or a command for every person who would follow him. But what Jesus does here is he pinpoints the exact thing that this guy needed to address in his heart. He says, look, if you sell everything that you have and give it to the poor, you will have treasure in heaven.

So sell all of your treasures and you will have treasure in heaven. And then come follow me. But it tells us that he went away sorrowful. Now think about that. You know, here you are, you got so much going on, but you know, like, yeah, there's just, there's something missing. What is that thing? And then here you are, find someone in authority, someone who can tell you what's what. And he tells you what that thing is.

You could imagine you would walk away rejoicing because there was this one thing that was bugging me and I just couldn't quite figure it out. And here I have the answer. And so, yes, all right, that's amazing. I've got the answer. But that's not how he went away. He went away sorrowful because it was not an answer that he wanted to hear. It wasn't an answer that he was willing to receive. And the Bible gives us insight here. It's because he had great possessions.

He had great possessions. And I like to think of that in two ways. On the one hand, he had great possessions, a massive amount. He had, you know, vaults filled with treasure. There was so many possessions that he had. But then I can also flip it around on the other side and see that he had great possessions. Oh, this possession I have right here in my hand, it's so great. I can't let that go. He had many possessions.

but also it speaks to how important these things were to him. He treasured these possessions. And Jesus says, look, you're treasuring your possessions, so sell your treasures and you will have treasure in heaven. You're treasuring the wrong things, in other words.

The way that you're evaluating things, the way that you're valuing things, it's from the wrong perspective. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, by asking him to sell his goods, Jesus was forcing him to examine his own heart and determine his priorities. With all of his commendable qualities, the young man still did not truly love God with all his heart. Possessions were his God. The reason why Jesus calls him to sell his possessions is because Jesus could see that

He pinpoints the real issue. If Jesus had given him a list of, all right, here's 45 things that you need to do to be saved, the rich young ruler would have walked away skipping and rejoicing even if they were hard things. All right, you need to go on a quest and achieve this thing and return this relic. All right, I'll fight dragons, whatever. It's like, yes, great, I'll go do that. He would have went away joyfully, but he comes away sorrowfully because Jesus had pinpointed the one thing

The real issue of his heart was that possessions were his God. That's what he treasured. Now, as we think about this rich young ruler, it's easy to kind of pick apart his life and heart and motivations, right? But what about you? What would Jesus ask of you? If he was going to pinpoint one thing, hey, here's what you need to do. What would that one thing be? Now, there's maybe part of you that you know what it is that Jesus would address, but you

You don't really want to acknowledge that. I'm just going to keep pretending I don't know what Jesus would ask of me. Because if I acknowledge that I knew, and then I'd be accountable that I know what it is that Jesus wants to address in my life, and Jesus is saying is too important in my life, and I'm treasuring and valuing that too much, well then I'd have to give it up. And I don't want to give it up. And we're like the rich young ruler. We're like, oh, I have great possessions.

I'm holding on to this. It doesn't have to be a richness in the sense of billions of dollars in the bank. We don't have to have much to treasure the wrong thing. We might look at the rich young ruler and say, yeah, that doesn't pertain to me because I'm not rich. I barely survive. I'm just struggling to get through. And we can say that, but poor people can have great possessions just like rich people. Riches is a subjective perspective anyways because

Compared to this rich young ruler, probably all of us are wealthy in a great degree. Compared to others around the world, I mean, yes, we're blessed even when we struggle and have very difficult things and challenging bills to pay and all of that. So set aside the idea of riches. Set aside whether or not there are more people that have more money above you. The question is...

Are you great at treasuring eternity? So that you treasure the things of the life that is to come more than you treasure the things of this life. This guy treasured his possessions more than heaven. And so he walks away sad. And in verse 23, Jesus says to his disciples, assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And again, I say to you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. As Jesus watches this guy walk away sad, maybe he came excited, hopeful, you know, he's got a lot of energy, but then Jesus gives the answer, his shoulders slump, his head drops, he kind of like slodges away. I don't know how it looks, but Jesus watches this guy walking away sorrowful, and he tells his disciples, hey guys, take note of this. Look at this. It's so hard to

for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's so hard because it's so hard for people to let go the things that they treasure so much in this life. Pastor David Guzik says, riches are a snare because they tend to make us satisfied with this life instead of longing for the age to come. There needs to be in our hearts a longing for eternity, a longing for the age to come, a desire for it. Not that we're, you know, rushing towards it, but

but that still we're looking towards it with expectation, with hope. And when there are things in our life that keep us from longing for the things to come, when there are things that we treasure instead of laying up our treasures in heaven, well, there's an imbalance there. We're not striving to become great in the kingdom of God.

Because we need to be great. We need to become great at treasuring eternity. Now, when the disciples heard what Jesus said in verse 25, it says, His disciples heard it. They were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said to them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. The disciples are blown away. It says they're greatly astonished. As they watch this rich young ruler walk away sorrowful,

And Jesus says, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. They're like, what? Who then can be saved? If that guy can't be saved, none of us have any hope at all is what they were thinking. Because in their culture, the Jewish people believed that riches were evidence of righteousness and favor with God.

So you see a rich person walking down the street and you go, whoo, righteous person right there, man. Look, oh, God has blessed them so much. And then you see a poor person go behind them. Oh man, that guy is wicked. I wonder what he did. They thought there was a direct correlation to how wealthy you were to how righteous you were. They thought this way because, well, they were not great at treasuring heaven. They didn't know how to look beyond the things that are visible and see the things of eternal value.

So the disciples are greatly astonished. It's impossible. If this rich guy, he's like the righteous person I know, because look how rich he is. They thought it was an automatic connection, but Jesus is saying, no, that's treasuring the wrong things. That's evaluating things poorly. That's not the right perspective to have. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, and

Jesus says, look, you need to make a deliberate decision to value, to treasure things of eternity. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. It's a deliberate decision. It's not an afterthought. It's not just a, you know, thing that happens in the background without you thinking about it. But make a purposeful decision.

I greatly value this. And it could be a thing, could be any noun, person, place, or thing, right? It could be an idea, a pursuit, a goal, a career, fantasy. When we treasure that, we're fostering that, we're holding onto that, and we're unwilling to lay up treasures in heaven. We're not striving for greatness, but to strive for greatness, to reach our full potential. First, we need to become great at humbling ourselves.

We need to learn how to hear from God and receive from God and then put into practice what it is that he desires for us. And then we need to learn how to evaluate things in a better way, putting great value on the things of eternity and much lesser value. Not that the things of this life don't have any value, but we get them backwards. We get them mixed up. And sometimes we sacrifice the real treasures for the simple, passing, fleeting.

corruptible treasures of this life. Become great at treasuring heaven. Well, finally, we're going to now move to Matthew chapter 20 for the third thing to consider in striving to become great. Thirdly, we need to become great at serving others. And here we're going to look at Matthew chapter 20 verses 20 through 28. Here in this account, we find the disciples approaching Jesus again.

with greatness on their minds, greatness on their hearts. This time, it's James and John who come to Jesus, and they've roped in their mom. And their mom is in the mix now and trying to work out some positions of greatness for them. Let's read through verses 20 through 23. It says, Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from him. And he said to her, What do you wish? Zebedee said,

She said to him,

And so here we have this interaction between the mother of Zebedee's sons, that's James and John, and their mom. They come to Jesus. Now as you look at this, it's interesting to kind of play around with in your mind, like how did all of this come about? Some of you, you're familiar with the way some moms operate, so you could think, well,

The mom's trying to work out something good for her kids. So she tells the boys, boys, come here. Let's go. We need to talk to Jesus. And the mom is driving this interaction. But also some of you know sons. And you might know, okay, well, the sons are probably saying, mom, can you do us a favor? I mean, Jesus isn't really going to respond well to us. But if you ask him, like, what, can you? And then, and so they're, you know, driving the interaction. It could have been both, probably all of the above. Who knows? Who knows?

Whatever the case, here they are, the three of them before Jesus saying, we'd like a favor. Picturing you and your kingdom, you're going to be there in glory. You know, might as well start setting the placeholders now. You know, just kind of get some of those details taken care of ahead of time so it's easier and you can just enjoy the moment. Why don't you let James and John sit on either side of you? They're in your glory and your kingdom.

And they're just picturing this like incredible scene, you know, with Jesus on the throne and all this power. And here is James and John on either side. And Jesus says, no, it's not for you to decide. It's not for me to decide. My father decides the places. Again, Jesus submitted to the father's will, calls us to do the same. But here are these disciples manipulating, seeking to accomplish, seeking to secure for themselves things.

This position, this role. Now, when the rest of the disciples hear about it, they're pretty upset. It tells us in verse 24, when the 10 heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. They were greatly displeased. Why do you think they were greatly displeased? It wasn't because, oh man, why did you waste Jesus' time with that? You know, like you really shouldn't waste Jesus' time with those kinds of things, right?

Why did you bug him? You wrote your mom in, you know, oh, we're so displeased with you because of this. Why were they greatly displeased? They were probably greatly displeased because, man, that was a good idea. I wish I would have thought of it. I mean, I guess I'm glad you thought of it and it didn't work, but yeah, that would have been amazing. I should have thought of that. It's kind of like, you know, when you're a kid, you're walking out to the car, you say, shotgun. Hey, the rules of shotgun are very clear. Whoever says shotgun first gets that place of honor.

And the other kids are like, oh man, I wanted shotgun. I wanted to have that spot. I wanted to have that place. So then next time, you know, the other kid tries to call shotgun early, but the rules of shotgun are clear. You have to be inside of the car. You can't do it, you know. Shotgun for the next three years, you know. You can't, that doesn't work. You have to be inside the car and then call shotgun and then boom, now you get that place of honor. You get to that place that you want. And then everybody else is

Oh, I wanted that place. That's how the disciples are interacting with each other now. Here's James and John posturing for themselves and trying to manipulate these things and accomplish these things for themselves. And it's bugging the other disciples because they want that position. They want that role. Again, the issue of greatness and the desire for greatness weighs on them. And so Jesus begins to instruct them in verse 25. It says, Jesus called them to himself and said,

Jesus says, you guys are following the wrong example, the wrong model. You're looking at the rulers of the Gentiles. You're looking at unbelievers who have authority. And the way they exercise authority, it's, well, in lording over, in ruling over. It's in demonstrations of authority. It's in

positions of authority. It's in accomplishing, you know, positions and demonstrating that and rubbing your face in it and letting you know. If you've ever been in a workplace that had other people in it, you're familiar with this kind of thing. It's workplace politics and it happens wherever people are gathered together. In my workplace, we have every two weeks free lunch Friday.

You're all invited. Come on out. No, I'm just kidding. No, but it's free lunch Friday. And then the employees get to vote on what it is that we have for a free lunch Friday. And there's campaigns and there's politicians and there's manipulating and scheming and plotting and planning and all of these ways to get the free lunch that I want to get.

And so there's usually only, there's like 10 things on the list, but usually there's only two things that are voted for. And it's everybody, you know, gathering around the item that they want and they're trying to get their team to win and there's all this posturing and promoting in this way. And that's just for Free Lunch Friday, right? When it comes to actual positions of authority, when it comes to promotions, when it comes to, you know, new things and positions that have real consequence, it's the same thing even to a greater degree, right?

We see it happen in workplace politics. This pursuit of authority and lording it over. And sometimes people get a taste of authority and they begin to act kind of strange. Thinking back to a long time ago, nobody you know, I used to work with a guy. He was hired to be an assistant manager. And you can take all of the whole series of the office and think about the assistant to the regional manager, right? Like all that, yeah, fit it all in there. It's really appropriate. Hired to be the assistant manager.

And so we bring him in, we show him his office, and here's your desk, and all the stuff you need on your desk. And he looks at it, he says, oh, no, no, this isn't going to work. Okay, what's wrong? What do you need? It's that chair. It's not a manager's chair. Manager's chair? Yeah, I need to get a manager's chair. Okay. So he comes back later that day. Did you know? Look at Staples. Here's their website. Different kinds of office chairs you can get.

Banker's chair, computer and desk chair, that's the most, that's like just the regular, right? Conference chair, executive chair, kneeling chair, manager chair, that's the one I want. He comes back in with this big box, it says manager chair on, real big. He's walking by our desk, he's saying, look, see, manager chair, it's a manager chair. He says, I'm the manager, I got a manager chair. It's the kind of guy you want to work for, right? Rulers of the Gentiles, lord it over, I'm the manager chair.

Jesus says, that's the wrong model. That's not how you're supposed to be. That's not how you're supposed to operate. Here they are fighting and, you know, trying to accomplish for themselves a management position. And Jesus says, no, no, you're thinking like Gentiles. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says they were thinking like the world and wanted to lord it over the other disciples the way the unsaved Gentile rulers lorded over their subjects.

Their request was fleshly because they were selfishly asking for glory for themselves and not for the Lord. No doubt they felt relieved that they had gotten to Jesus with this request before Peter did. They thought, yes, we get there first. We'll get the position. And then, all right, guys, we're the bosses. We're the managers. We're in charge. They're seeking to lord it over the other disciples. Jesus says in verse 26, yet it shall not be so among you.

You're thinking about it all wrong. It's backwards. It's opposite. Instead, you need to think about greatness in this way. If you want to be great, be a servant. Unbelieving perspective is to lord over, but as believers. Striving to be great in the kingdom of God, it's not about lording over. It's about serving others. Verse 27 says,

Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus says, let me give you a new example to follow. Not the rulers of the Gentiles. Look at my example, Jesus said. I'm king of kings and lord of lords. I'm creator of the heavens and the earth. But I didn't show up here so that everybody could serve me. I came in order to serve others.

to give my life as a ransom for many, to give myself for the sake of others, to strive to become great, to reach our full potential in the Lord, means that we'll be serving others. Are you great at serving others? I would remind you that service, it's not necessarily recognized or understood even as it's being given. But serving means giving what is needful and best for people.

That's what Jesus did. He didn't give us what we wanted. He gave us what we needed. It's related to the idea of love, doing what is best for people. And serving others, sometimes it's not going to be recognized. Sometimes it's going to be fought against. But the point is, we are seeking to accomplish, seeking to bring about what is best for people. And Jesus says, this is the way to become great in the kingdom of God. Not to have a position where you can lord over others,

but to take a position where you can serve and meet people's real needs, whether they're aware of them or conscious of them, know about them or want them met at all, but that you would humble yourself to serve others and to meet their needs. And so this morning, I would encourage you to strive for greatness. We're going to read in a couple of chapters in Matthew chapter 25, the parable of the talents. Each servant in that parable is given certain amounts of money.

And the expectation is that you will use those resources to the fullest potential. And the one that didn't is scolded, rebuked, reprimanded very severely. In a similar way, yes, you need to strive for greatness. Don't just be like, hey, I'm just going to be happy if I get to heaven. That's good enough for me. That's all I need. I don't need to have greatness. But no, you do. Not greater than in competition with others, but in response to what Christ has done for you. He reached his full potential for you.

It's appropriate for you to then give yourself back to him to that same degree. Not half-heartedly, not, you know, just like, well, who cares? You know, as long as I make it, that's all that matters. No, you need to strive to become great. Focused in the right way. Not modeling after the rulers of Gentiles, right? But become great at humbling yourself. Become great at treasuring heaven. Become great at serving others.

We have Jesus as the model for this, and we get to consider that as we close this morning with a time of communion. I'm going to invite the worship team. You guys can come on up and get ready. Communion is a time that Jesus gave us to remind us of his greatest act of service, his greatest sacrifice, his giving of himself for us. He gave us the bread, and he said, look, this represents my body, which is broken for you.

partake of this, do this, receive my broken body, receive what I have done for you. Do it often and do it in remembrance of me. And then he gave him the cup and he said, look, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. My blood shed for you for the remission of sins. Do this often and remember and partake, receive what I have done for you. It's his act of service, his act of greatness, which he modeled for us and demonstrated for us that

Well, that we might be forgiven and be able to enter into the kingdom of God as a child of God, but it's also the model for us to follow in living out our lives, not in our ambitions, not in our own selfish pursuits, but seeking the things of the kingdom of God, seeking him first and his righteousness, humility, valuing eternity, and serving others.

So the ushers are going to pass out the bread and the cup as they lead us in worship. And you can partake of the bread and the cup at any time as you interact with the Lord. As he pinpoints, just like the young ruler, like on your heart, what things you're holding on to, you receive that communion as the inviting the Lord to forgive you, to cleanse you. But also you receive that communion as a

Like the disciples, I'm leaving all to follow you. And I'm turning now to strive to become great in the kingdom of God. Let it be a receiving from the Lord and a giving unto the Lord as you partake. At the end of the song, they'll give you an opportunity to partake. So if you haven't, you can partake then. But let's worship the Lord together. Receive from him and give unto him our whole hearts.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.